Bhubaneswar, Mar 13 (PTI) The nomination papers of all
the three ruling BJD candidates were today found valid while
that of the lone Independent candidate was rejected during
scrutiny for the coming Rajya Sabha elections from Odisha,
Returning Officer Rajesh Prabhakar Patil said.

The three Biju Janata Dal candidates - Prashant Nanda,
Soumya Ranjan Patnaik and Achyuta Samanta - had filed their
nomination on March 9.

The nomination papers filed by independent candidate
Subash Mohapatra was rejected as he could not arrange the
required number of proposers, the returning officer said.

The BJD candidates are certain to get elected to the
Upper House of the Parliament as it has 118 MLAs out of the
total 147 Assembly seats in the state.

The opposition Congress and BJP which have 15 MLAs
and 10 MLAs respectively, have not fielded any candidate for
the Rajya Sabha elections.

Polling will be held between 9 am and 4 pm on March
23, while votes will be counted at 5 pm the same day.